Volcanic eruption in Spain forces 5,000 people out of their homes

Some 5,000 people were forced to evacuate in Spain’s La Palma island after a volcano erupted on Sunday, with lava flows destroying as many as 100 houses, according to local media reports.

“A number of houses have been destroyed”, a regional government spokeswoman told AFP, adding that they were still surveying the area to determine precisely how many properties had been engulfed.

According to the local mayor in nearby El Paso village Sergio Rodriguez, at least 20 homes were completely destroyed by the volcano, which erupted on Sunday for the first time in 50 years.

“The lava left absolutely nothing in its path”, Rodriguez told TVE broadcaster, saying residents were living in uncertainty, AFP reports.

With a population of 85,000, La Palma is one of the eight volcanic islands in Spain’s Canary Islands, 100km from Morocco.

Experts had been keeping close watch on the volcano after observing a recent uptake in seismic activity in the region.

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake was recorded before the initial eruption, which then continued well into Sunday night.

Although it was too early to tell how long this eruption would last, Itahiza Dominguez, head of seismology at the Spanish National Geology Institute told local media that prior “eruptions on the Canary Islands lasted weeks, or even months.”